Arizonan may become Eugene's top lawman.

Byline: Rebecca Nolan The Register-Guard

Assistant Chief Robert Lehner has spent 25 years working his way up the ranks of the Tucson, Ariz., police force.

Now he could be the next chief of police in Eugene.

City Manager Dennis Taylor announced Monday that Lehner, 48, is the first choice to be Eugene's top cop. If all goes well with a required background check, physical examination and psychological profile, Lehner will fill a position that has been vacant for nearly three years.

Taylor described Lehner as "bright, articulate and experienced."

Lehner has drawn praise for his sensitivity in working with Tucson's Hispanic and American Indian communities, and he dealt with both the response to and aftermath of a campus-area riot that erupted following a University of Arizona basketball game.

"But I think what struck me about him is that he was mindful of what it means to manage in challenging economic times," Taylor said.

Reached in Tucson on Monday, Lehner said Eugene seems like a perfect match for him. He said he hopes to be on the job sometime next month.

"What the city's needs and desires are for a police chief fit me, my style and my personality," he said. "The whole atmosphere is really very much like Tucson, from the university to the activism to the neighborhoods, except it's on a smaller scale, of course. It feels like home, except for the climate."

Eugene's well-established neighborhoods and involved citizenry appealed to Lehner, who helped develop a successful neighborhood-based community policing program in Tucson, a city of a half-million people, he said.

Lehner is earning a salary of about $124,000 as Tucson's senior assistant chief, but Taylor expects to be able to hire him as Eugene's chief at somewhere in the advertised range of $90,521 to $113,484.

The son of German immigrants, Lehner has lived in Tucson since he was 12.

He joined the Tucson police department in 1978, at the age of 23.

Since then, he has held almost every job in the department except chief - from investigations to patrol to administration.

"I've had a good career here, but it's time to look at other opportunities," he said.

Lehner earned his MBA from the University of Arizona in 2001 and received his bachelor of science degree from UA in 1995. He was named assistant chief in 1998.

He is married and has two daughters, ages 12 and 17.

He'll be missed in Tucson, said Jim Parks, vice president of the Tucson Police Officers Association.

The department has 1,350 employees, 996 of whom are sworn officers. Eugene has 170 sworn officers.

Lehner has been working alongside the union to resolve issues surrounding defective bulletproof vests, Parks said.

"The union works well with him, and he works well with the union," Parks said. "He's fair, and when he dispenses discipline, he's fair about that, too. He'll be a great addition to the Eugene department."

Union officials here were pleased with Taylor's choice.

The union had been pushing for an outsider who could bring a fresh perspective, preferably with command experience and preferably from the West Coast, said Willy Edewaard, president of the Eugene Police Employees Association.

"I think he could do a fine job," Edewaard said. "He's got ideas, and we need to tap into that. We've been stagnant."

The union's top priorities are boosting patrol staffing and filling vacant positions at the communications center. But the new chief's biggest challenge will be improving morale, Edewaard said. "We need some direction and some leadership," he said.

The chief's position has been vacant since the Dec. 31, 2001, retirement of former Chief Jim Hill. Investigations Capt. Thad Buchanan, interim chief since then, did not apply for the permanent job.

Lehner and two other finalists were interviewed by three panels - one from the community, another from the law enforcement field and the third from executive ranks - and Lehner was the top pick of each, Taylor said.

The two other finalists are from Seattle and Hartford, Conn.

The hiring process was reopened this fall after the top pick in an initial round - a campus police chief in Minneapolis - opted out after being selected.

That aborted effort caused some uneasiness going into the current selection process, Taylor said, but most of those involved in the candidate interviews agreed that the second group was deeper.

"I was afraid this candidate pool would be considered kind of the 'B' list," Taylor said. "But a lot (of interviewers) felt it was as rich if not richer than the first."

The second pool, unlike the first, included two candidates from within the Eugene department, Capts. Steve Swenson and Elvia Williams. Lehner was not among the first pool's candidates.

Taylor notified Lehner on Monday morning.

Police department employees learned of the choice in an e-mail message sent out that afternoon.

Reporter Joe Mosley contributed to this report